Interviews with David Madden Compiled and with an Introduction by CAROL MORROW and JAMES A. PERKINS Interviews with David Madden Interviews with David Madden Compiled and with an Introduction by Carol Morrow and James A. Perkins Newfound Press THE UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE LIBRARIES, KNOXVILLE Interviews with David Madden © 2014 by Carol Morrow and James A. Perkins Digital version at www.newfoundpress.utk.edu/pubs/madden Newfound Press is a digital imprint of the University of Tennessee Libraries. Its publications are available for noncommercial and educational uses, such as research, teaching and private study. The author has licensed the work under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/us/ For all other uses, contact: Newfound Press University of Tennessee Libraries 1015 Volunteer Boulevard Knoxville, TN 37996-1000 www.newfoundpress.utk.edu ISBN-13: 978-0-9846445-8-2 ISBN-10: 0-9846445-8-X Madden, David, 1933- Interviews with David Madden / compiled and with an introduction by Carol Morrow and James A. Perkins. Knoxville, Tenn. : Newfound Press, University of Tennessee Libraries, ©2014. 1 online resource (xi, 336 p.) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Madden, David, 1933- Interviews. 2. Authors, American -- 20th century – Biography. 3. Authors, American -- Southern States – Biography. I. Morrow, Carol. II. Perkins, James A., 1941- PS3563.A339 Z463 2014 ON THE COVER: Photo courtesy of Blake Madden Book design by Jayne W. Smith Cover design by Jayne W. Smith and Seth Jordan Contents Preface vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 The Compulsion to Tell a Story: An Interview with David Madden, 1967 5 Greg Spaid A Conversation with David Madden, 1971 31 Sanford Pinsker An Interview with David Madden, 1974 43 Allen Wier An Interview with David Madden, 1974 65 Ruth Laney An Interview with David Madden, 1976 83 Samuel Prestridge An Interview with David Madden, 1980 95 Ray Jones Interview with David Madden: On Technique in Fiction, 1984 111 Jeffrey J. Folks The Art of the Novel: An Interview with David Madden, 1984 129 William Parrill vi CONTENTS David Madden on WUOT in Knoxville, November 1985 161 Jacqueline Jones David Madden on Southern Literature, 1990 171 A. B. Crowder David Madden on Writing, 1990 185 A. B. Crowder Interview with David Madden: “The Theatrical Image,” 1994 199 Peggy Bach Outside Events: Inside the Imagination: An Interview with David Madden, 1997 215 Jeffrey J. Folks David Madden on Creative Writing: An Interview, 2002 233 James A. Perkins Web of the Imagination: An Interview with David Madden, 2006 255 Jeffrey J. Folks Myriad Mindedness: An Interview with David Madden, 2009 281 William Parrill Don’t Write—Revise (And Break Rules), 2010 299 Susan K. Perry Awesome Output, No Writer’s Block: How? 2013 305 Susan K. Perry Appendix 311 Preface I have known David Madden since 1960 when I was a sophomore at Centre College and he was teaching in the English Department and waiting for the publication of his first novel, The Beautiful Greed. I heard him read in convocation during my sophomore year, but I never had a class with him. At that time, I thought I was going to be a lawyer, and Madden was too much like the front-porch-sitting, storytelling family members I was trying to put behind me. Our paths diverged after my junior year. Madden went to the University of Louisville, Kenyon College, and Ohio University before becoming writer in residence at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge. I became an English major and wound up taking a job teach- ing creative writing at Westminster College in Pennsylvania. I kept up with Madden by reading his works as they appeared. We saw each other at writers’ conferences and at his readings. At the 2000 SAMLA [South Atlantic Modern Language Association] meeting, I asked Madden if he would cooperate with me in an attempt to compile a book about his work. That led toDavid Madden: A Writer for All Genres (2006) which I coedited with Randy Hendricks. A reader interested in exploring more of Madden’s work should consult the bibliography in that work or the bibliography at www.davidmadden.net. This collection arises out of some of the viii PREFACE research for that volume. Madden is an energetic and hardworking teacher of creative writing. He is a careful reader, and he is most observant of the techniques of writing. The best summary of Madden on the craft of fiction can be found in hisRevising Fiction (1988), but the advantage of reading this text is that you get to know the man, his character, and his voice as well as his message. James A. Perkins Acknowledgments I have a number of people to thank as I wrap up this volume: my coeditor Carol Morrow, who is another careful reader and a calm- ing spirit as well as a remarkable problem solver; Timothy Giblin, who proofed the entire manuscript; Dean Jesse Mann and Faculty Development Officer Sandra Webster, who provided support for this project; Connie Davis of McGill Library, who ran down fugi- tive magazine articles for me through interlibrary loan; and Jayne W. Smith of Newfound Press. Most of the interviews in this book appeared previously, some of them in a slightly different form, in the sources listed below. Some have been reprinted previously as noted. For accuracy, readability, and consistency throughout the interviews, we have made minor revisions to spelling, punctuation, and the treatment of numbers. We are grateful to the publications listed below for permission to publish them here. Crowder, A. B., ed. 1990. “David Madden on Southern Literature.” In Writing in the Southern Tradition: Interviews with Five Contemporary Authors, 157-69. Amsterdam: Rodopi. 1990. “David Madden on Writing.” In Writing in the Southern Tradition: Interviews with Five Contemporary Authors, 170-82. Amsterdam: Rodopi. x ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Bach, Peggy. 1995. “Interview with David Madden: ‘The Theatrical Im a g e .’” Southern Quarterly 33 (2-3): 215-26. Reprinted as Southern Novelists on Stage and Screen, edited by David Madden, with George Garrett and Irving Malin. A special double issue of Southern Quarterly (Winter-Spring 1995). Folks, Jeffrey J. 1987. “Interview with David Madden on Technique in Fiction.” Southern Quarterly 25 (2): 24-38. 1997. “Outside Events: Inside the Imagination: An Interview with David Madden.” New Letters 64 (1): 88-105. Reprinted with permission of New Letters and the Curators of The University of Missouri, Kansas City. 2008. “Web of the Imagination: An Interview with David Madden.” Arkansas Review: A Journal of Delta Studies 40 (1): 106-18. Jones, Jacqueline. 1985. “Interview with David Madden.” WUOT-FM, November. Jones, Ray. 1982. “An Interview with David Madden.” New Orleans Review 9 (1): 29-35. Laney, Ruth. 1975. “Interview with David Madden.” Southern Review 11 (January): 167-80. Parrill, William. 1984. “The Art of the Novel: An Interview with David Madden.” Louisiana Literature (Fall): 5-12. Reprinted as “Telling It Again: A Conversation with David Madden” in The Long Haul: Conversations with Southern Authors. Lanham: University Press of America, 1994, 39-58. 2010. “Myriad Mindedness: An Interview with David Madden.” Louisiana Literature 26 (2): 1-15. Perry, Susan. “Don’t Write—Revise (And Break Rules).” Creating in Flow (blog). http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/ creating-in-flow/201008/dont-write-revise-and-break-rules ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi . “Awesome Output, No Writer’s Block: How?” Creating in Flow (blog). http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/creating-in- flow/201302/awesome-output-no-writers-block-how Pinsker, Sanford. 1973. “A Conversation with David Madden.” Critique 15 (3): 5-13. Reprinted as “David Madden” in Conversations with Contemporary American Writers. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1985:44-54. Prestridge, Samuel. 1977. “An Interview with David Madden.” Mississippi Review 6 (3): 3-7. Wier, Allen. 1974. “Interview with David Madden.” Penny Dreadful 3 (Spring): n.p. Introduction Carol Morrow and James A. Perkins David Madden, the southern writer and teacher, is a force of nature, a lightning strike, a straight-line wind, a one-hundred-year flood. When he is talking about literature or the process of writing, he exudes energy. Interviewing him, trying to keep up with his narra- tive, trying to follow the allusions that arise from his wide-ranging reading is an exhausting yet educational task. Madden is always reconsidering and reinventing his own mate- rial, discovering aspects of his own works even as he answers inter- view questions­­—and delighting in those discoveries. On occasion, he seems almost to stumble over his own words in his excitement to present an idea to the interviewer. And where better can readers, cre- ative writers, and artists of all types learn about the creative process than from a man who has written short stories, novels, and poetry as well as radio, theater, and movie scripts? This collection is a fine pre- sentation of the thought processes, creativity, techniques, and pas- sions of Madden, who succinctly sums up his life and work best with the statement, “I feel the creative process is ongoing: it never ends.” If you have read even one of Madden’s works, you already under- stand the depth of his description, the intensity of his loyalty to a sense of place, the reworking of many of his original texts, and his interest in sparking the imagination of his readers. As he writes, 2 INTRODUCTION reads, or spins a tale, you can almost envision him leaning for- ward, eyes sparkling in anticipation of his audience’s pleasure in his efforts. Madden’s persistent focus is on storytelling, and his passion is evi- dent in his voice. His recollections and observations take the reader to another time, when families gathered to listen to and participate in telling stories, before the electronic age pushed away such human interaction and intimacy.